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Jodie Foster phones it in

Actress Jodie Foster has made a “major gift” (not a major award) of an undisclosed amount to the Trevor Project, the only nationwide, 24-hour suicide prevention helpline for gay and questioning youth. The gift was made following the organization’s newly announced plan to raise $1 million in multiyear gifts for two new call centers.

The goal of the new fundraising campaign is to raise enough money to fully fund and operate the Los Angeles call center and open and operate a new call center in New York. This would also enable the two call centers to be open twenty-fours a day with a full staff of helpline counselors. (A related campaign goal is to provide funding for counselor training workshops that will graduate twenty-five new counselors each quarter.)

Foster’s gift was made in honor of producer Randy Stone (pictured here with her), the executive producer of Foster’s Little Man Tate and producer of the Academy Award—winning short film Trevor. Stone died this year at the age of 48.

Stone was also the guy we can thank for casting AfterEllen.com Hot 100 List hottie No. 35 Gillian Anderson – oh yeah, and David Duchovny – in The X-Files while both were relatively unknown at the time. Even more important, according to the website the11thhour.com, Stone rethought the original concept of the Scully character (less bimbo, more brainy) and “axed a boyfriend for Scully in the original script.”

And for this, many of us will be eternally grateful.

According to the Trevor Project, Foster’s award is the largest donation made in the program’s history.

Foster said, “I feel so lucky to have had a best friend like Randy Stone, the funniest guy I’ve ever known. He was talented, passionate, supportive, and as big as life. He brought all his beautiful energy to The Trevor Project, which has done such meaningful work on behalf of gay and questioning youths. The call center campaign’s impact will continue the Trevor mission in Randy’s honor just as he would have wanted. I am proud to continue my support of Trevor in memory of my dearest friend. He is missed.”

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